“We have to represent,” Branscum said. “We’ll watch the OU-Washington game at the ESPN Zone. That day we’ll be wearing our OU stuff. But on a lot of other days we wanted to wear some Thunder gear.”
Branscum was one of several hundred people who waited in a long line that stretched throughout Leadership Square Wednesday night, each planning to purchase Thunder merchandise at the team store.
Max Blumenthal, 15, was the first person in line. The Casady student stood outside the team store for nearly an hour before the press conference ended. As soon as team chairman Clay Bennett left the stage, Blumenthal walked in to view Thunder items on sale.
Chad Wilkerson, 34, works downtown. He attended a handful of Hornet games the two seasons they played in Oklahoma City. With two small children at home, he hopes to work a few Thunder games into the budget.
“I just wanted to be one of the first to have some of the gear,” Wilkerson said. “I like the logo. It’s pretty classy. It wasn’t bad. The big thing is I’m excited about the team being here.”
Josh Newby, 27, of Ada designed a Thunder logo that ran in The Oklahoman with several other nickname candidates.
“For them to pick Thunder, it feels in a small way I helped influence them to choose that name,” Newby said. “It’s a big thing for the state to get an NBA team. Clay (Bennett) said he was going to consider what the fans wanted. Thunder is what the people picked. It looks like they listened to the fans.”
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Scott,
Do you support your team, or not. If you abandon them, fine, but say so. There are no Sonics, the team is called the Thunder, and if you want to be snotty and say they're "weak", why are you even wasting everyone's time here?
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